Thursday, 18 June 2009

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Amazing Grace

Toronto, Ontario

Shyam accompanies me in early dawn walks. Being from Israel, he finds it cool here. He's all bundled up. For me, it's perfect. With the sun out, I was thrown a thought, "do we deserve it this good? This perfect weather?"

I recall a comment made by a monk senior to me when I had just made that bold decision to try life in the ashram (monastery). He said, "You get what you desire and what you deserve, you get two D's."

I had to think about that. An individual has aspirations for the future. They could be healthy or harmful aspirations. Then, karmically, we receive punishments or rewards based on our behaviour from the past. The current and the past impact us to the point where the future becomes determined.

So we have a situation where we are reeling back and forth from negative to positive 'karma' and then there is another principle called 'grace'. It's something we have not deserved nor perhaps desired. It appears to be an unearned favour. It's grace or mercy that gets many of us through this nasty whirlpool of good and bad.

Sometimes we must beg for this grace. Let me correct myself. It might be a good idea to always beg for grace.

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ABOUT ME

I am a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and I became a monk of the Hare Krishna order in 1973. My teacher gave me the spiritual name, Bhaktimarga Swami, which means "the path of devotion". Of course, this fits right in with my avid promotion of walking adventures as a way to connect with the Divine and lead a more care-free / car-free lifestyle. It is a great joy to share these adventures in both Canada and abroad with you via my daily blog.
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